Ethiopia

The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, as it suffers the worst drought in more than half a century. When does mass starvation turn into a famine? (..) Most major aid agencies - the FAO, the WFP, the UN's Famine Early Warning Systems Network, Save the Children UK, CARE International, the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Oxfam - only describe a crisis as a famine when the situation on the ground reaches level five on the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system.

Based on the UN's five-step scale the last official famine in Africa occured in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s but other huminatarian catastrophes have followed. (..) Lesotho 2002 : (..) The World Food Programme estimated that around 500,000 people needed food aid, many of them for up to a year but an humanitarian disaster was averted.

WITH the prospect of a region-wide famine in the Horn of Africa, aid at the world's biggest refugee camp is not yet reaching some of the most vulnerable asylum seekers. (..) Many organisations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program, are working in Dadaab, but the high rates of malnutrition and child deaths show that aid delivery is lagging behind need.

Aid organizations are calling on the Canadian government to step up its donations to drought-ravaged East Africa, as a cabinet minister prepares to go there. Canada must keep its promise to initiatives such as the World Food Program and the United Nations' refugee agency to help the millions of starving people in the region, said Kevin McCort, president and CEO of CARE Canada.

Orr said the World Food Program was not yet ready to trust Shabaab’s sudden reversal. The program supplies aid to some 6 million people in other parts of Somalia and East Africa. “We’re not operating in that part of the country because of death threats and extortionate demands,” he said. “We’re ready to go back, and exploring every channel. But we operate with huge volumes of food — there are up to 1 million in need of assistance in that area. Dumping it and driving away is not an option.”

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has urged the global community to help people in drought-hit east Africa to avoid a "catastrophe". (..) The World Food Programme estimates 10 million people are affected by the worst drought in over half a century.

Last October, the elders in Borena zone of Oromiya region in southern Ethiopia predicted that the main rains would fail but some never took them seriously. The same happened in February. (..)But Hussein Hassen, a field monitor with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which provides the food for the programme, said resources were limited.

What is a famine? The United Nations has not yet declared the food crisis in the Horn of Africa a famine, but parts of the region have been classified as being in a "humanitarian emergency" phase, which is only one step away from a "famine" designation on the UN's scale of food security assessment. (..) The system was developed by several UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, including the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, CARE and Oxfam.

Choking droughts in East Africa could result in a human catastrophe unless the world community is prepared to give immediate help, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said. (..) The World Food Programme estimates that the drought in the Horn of Africa is the worst in over 50 years, and is affecting more than 10 million people.

Germany pledged a further five million euros ($7 million) in emergency aid to the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa. (..) The cash will go to organisations working in the affected region and to the UN World Food Programme.